Golden Boy executive: Scoring hurt Canelo and Golovkin

Gennady Golovkin, right, connects with a right to Canelo Alvarez during their middleweight title fight Sept. 17 in Las Vegas. (John Locher/The Associated Press)

Eric Gomez, president of Golden Boy Promotions, on Wednesday stood inside the City of Angels Boxing Club in Los Angeles. He was in a good mood, and should have been because only days earlier Golden Boy’s Canelo Alvarez managed a split-draw with middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Gomez’s expression became pained when discussing the scorecards, though. Dave Moretti had Golovkin winning 115-113, the same score we had. Don Trella had it 114-114 and Adalaide Byrd gave it to Alvarez by the absurd count of 118-110.
Gomez admitted he is concerned about how boxing is perceived after such a ridiculous scorecard. There was more on his mind, other than the rematch, for which negotiations were to begin Friday.
“You might agree with me and you might not, and the fans might agree with me or they might not; it doesn’t matter,” Gomez said. “But Canelo and Golden Boy are victims of that bad card as well. Not just Golovkin.
“Everybody starts pointing their fingers at us, like if we had something to do with it. That’s what really hurts because, leading up to the fight, everything was so perfect.”
Gomez said the promotion was pristine. Both sides were respectful. Neither objected to the selection of the judges.
“We told everybody, ‘This is going to be a great fight, an instant classic,'” Gomez said. “And it was. It delivered. And then you have the bad scorecard and everybody started focusing on that. So in many ways, we’re a victim also, of that.
“It’s not fair to us because we didn’t do anything wrong. Canelo didn’t do anything wrong. Canelo fought his ass off.”
Not only was Byrd way off, Trella scoring the seventh round for Alvarez wasn’t too cool, either. Even Byrd scored that round for Golovkin, who retained his belts with the draw.
After the bout, Bob Bennett – executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission – admitted Byrd had an off night. Gomez and his boss – Oscar De La Hoya – conceded Byrd’s card was poor even though it favored their fighter.
The only way to make this right is a rematch.
“I spoke to Oscar about it and he said, ‘Look, we want the tiebreaker,'” Gomez said.
Gomez said he and Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions, which promotes Golovkin, were to sit down Friday “to start discussions.” Gomez wouldn’t get into possible dates and venues. But Alvarez likes to fight in May and September, so May is a possibility.
Loeffler can’t wait to get it done.
“It seemed like everyone came away from that fight with an unsatisfied feeling,” Loeffler said Thursday.
Loeffler said the majority of scorecards he heard about – whether from HBO’s unofficial scoring or that of other reporters – were either 7-5 (115-113) or 8-4 (116-112) in favor of Golovkin.
There were a few press-row reporters polled who had it a draw, and a couple who had Alvarez narrowly ahead. There were more who had Golovkin winning.
“We’ve never seen Canelo get booed like that even by his own fans in that post-fight interview (in the ring), so definitely the majority of the public thought Gennady won the fight,” Loeffler said.
This was Golovkin’s first fight in Las Vegas. Loeffler didn’t say Golovkin wouldn’t fight there again, but he did say looking at the different options and weighing them is the way to go for the rematch.
Gomez said the pay-per-view buys will exceed 1 million. HBO will replay the bout Saturday as part of the Jorge Linares-Luke Campbell lightweight championship telecast from the Fabulous Forum.Linares vs. Campbell
Linares (42-3, 27 KOs) has won titles at featherweight, super featherweight and lightweight. But Campbell (17-1, 14 KOs), who won the gold medal at the 2012 London Games, is looking for his first world title as a prize fighter. That makes the British southpaw dangerous.
“I saw his last fight in London,” the Venezuelan champ said of Campbell’s ninth-round TKO of Darleys Perez in April at Wembley Stadium. “He’s a good fighter. He’s an Olympic champion and I have very good respect for him. But professional is different. It’s different style, different experience.
“I have a lot of experience. I have 45 fights, he has only 17 fights, right? But he has hunger, he wants to take my belt.”
Campbell (17-1, 14 KOs) will be in just his second fight outside of the United Kingdom. His first came three years ago when he knocked out Steve Trumble in the second round at StubHub Center.
“It’s massive, yeah,” Campbell, 29, said of his big chance. “It’s a great honor for me to actually make my real debut into America and I’m excited for the opportunity and I’m excited to show America what I’m made of.”
Linares, 32, is coming off back-to-back victories over Anthony Crolla, both title fights taking place in Crolla’s backyard of Manchester, England.
Campbell therefore knows it will be difficult to defeat Linares.
“I think he’s a great champion,” Campbell said. “He’s a three-weight world champion and he’s the best. So this is why I’m in boxing. I’m in boxing to be the best, and you’ve gotta beat the best to be the best.”